BEIJING, July 2(Xinhua) -- With the first freight train leaving from Geermu Station, the Qinghai section of the Geermu-Kuerle Railway, a railway channel connecting northwest China's Qinghai and Xinjiang, was officially opened to traffic on Tuesday, according to China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.
It is learned that the Geermu-Kuerle Railway has a total length of 1,213.7 kilometers, and is designed with a speed of 120 kilometers per hour. After the completion, the 26-hour bus ride from Kuerle to Geermu will be shortened to 12 hours by train, greatly releasing the existing transportation capacity of the areas along the way and driving the economic development of southern Xinjiang area.
As the northern section of Chengdu-Kuerle Railway, Geermu-Kuerle Railway connects the Southern Xinjiang Railway in the west and the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in the east, the railway will further improve China's inland transportation with Central Asian regions, and promote the development of the Belt and Road construction, said Sun Gang, who's in charge of the project.
(Edited by Bao Nuomin with Xinhua Silk Road, baonuomin@xinhua.org )